LE ROY — Southern Coffey County High’s boys weren’t much in the mood to offer second chances to their opponents from Lebo High.
On Friday, SCC held off the Wolves, in large part because of its ability to control the backboards.
“When it came down the stretch, we got all of the critical rebounds,” Titan head coach Brandt Miller said. “And we got the defensive stops we needed.”
Southern Coffey County limited Lebo to three fourth-quarter buckets in a 51-42 victory.
The win sends SCC into the Christmas break with a 5-1 record.
Southern Coffey County had several key contributors.
Senior guard Aaron True led the way with 17 points, but had just two in the fourth quarter as his teammates took their turns delivering key scoring plays.
Josiah Witteman had two free throws, and a basket early in the fourth quarter to cap an 8-0 SCC run to break open what had been a 32-32 deadlock.
The Wolves’ Thane Barker got loose inside for a basket at the 4:13 mark — the Wolves’ first points of the period — but that was answered by a Tyler Houston 3-pointer to push the Titan lead back to nine, 43-34.
The Wolves responded with an 8-2 run, finished off by Jake Gould’s 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 45-42, but Lebo got no closer.
Austin Chism sandwiched free throws around a Lebo turnover to extend the lead to 47-42. Walker Harred rebounded Chism’s miss with 18 seconds left, and hit 1 of 2 free throws of his own to push the lead to six and effectively end any hopes of a Lebo comeback.
“Gould hit that big 3, but we were guarding him, and he was falling away when he hit it,” Miller said. “I thought we did a good job of defending their shooters.”
The Titans led briefly by 10 in the second quarter until foul trouble sent Angus Nelson and Witteman to the bench. Lebo closed the half on an 11-4 run to cut SCC’s lead to 23-20.
“We were guarding their post players with guards a lot, but we were still able to hold our own rebounding,” Miller said. “That was very big.”
The teams exchanged leads twice in the third quarter before a key sequence near the end of the period gave the Titans the lead for good. Southern Coffey County held a 34-32 lead when True was whistled for an offensive foul with 2.1 seconds on the clock, negating a Houston 3-pointer.
But Lebo’s Gunnar Milota was whistled for an offensive foul of his own before the ball could be inbounded, giving possession back to SCC. A lob pass went to True, who gently banked in a short jumper as the buzzer sounded, giving the Titans a 36-32 lead.
Houston added 10 points for the Titans, followed by Newkirk with nine, Witteman with seven and Harred with six.
“Our offense hasn’t been where we wanted it to be the last couple of games,” Miller said. “We’ll work on that over the break.”
Brent Walford’s 13 paced Lebo. Oakley Baldwin added 10.
Southern Coffey County resumes play Jan. 7 at Marais des Cygnes Valley.
Lebo (7-13-12-10—42)
SCC (14-9-13-15—51)
Lebo (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Molota 1-0-4-2, G. Holmes 2-2-4-6, Gould 1/1-2-4-7, Baldwin 2/1-3-3-10, Miller 1-0-2-2, Baker 1-0-3-2, Walford 4-5-4-13. TOTALS: 12/2-12-24-42.
SCC (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): True 7-5-3-19, Newkirk 3-3-2-9, Houston 3/1-1-0-10, Nelson 0-0-5-0, Witteman 2-3-3-7, Gibson 0-0-3-0, Harred 2-2-1-6. TOTALS: 17/1-14-17-51.
Titans keep Wolves at bay
